Every year at this time, we like to take a moment to reflect on the events of the past year. For FedSmith.com, that means looking back at the year’s most popular articles.

From a petition to an extra day off at Christmas to proposals to reduce federal employees’ pensions to the official end to the pay freeze, the list that follows captures the most widely read articles on FedSmith.com from 2012.

We are both fortunate and thankful to have a growing number of authors writing for us who offer our users the benefit of their expertise and experience in working for and with the federal community. Thanks to them, it’s possible for us to provide our readers with articles such as these.

Our thanks to all of you who visit the FedSmith.com site throughout each day to stay informed. We wish all of you a happy and prosperous 2013!

Bill Introduced to Reduce Federal Workers’ Pensions
January 25, 2012
Rep. Dennis Ross (R-FL) has introduced legislation that would increase the amount federal employees would be required to pay towards their retirement plans and eliminate the FERS annuity supplement after 2012.

Two Significant Changes to FERS
October 21, 2012
You wouldn’t expect the “Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012″ to affect federal employee retirement benefits, would you? But it does make two significant changes to the Federal Employees’ Retirement System (FERS).

Proposed Legislation Would Temporarily End Step Increases
February 3, 2012
Rep. Martha Roby (R-AL) has introduced legislation that would prohibit step increases for federal employees through the end of 2012. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) has introduced companion legislation in the Senate.

Calculating Your 2013 COLA
June 25, 2012
How much of an increase will federal retirees get in their retirement annuity in January 2013? Probably not much.

Considering The New TSP Roth Option
February 13, 2012
The TSP will begin offering a Roth option in during the second quarter (April – June) of this year. The author provides some considerations for investors when deciding whether or not to utilize this new option in their TSP accounts.

WH Budget Asks Federal Employees to Sacrifice
February 13, 2012
The budget unveiled Monday by President Obama proposes to increase the contribution federal employees make towards retirement by 1.2% over three years beginning in 2013.

House Approves Federal Worker Cuts, Pay Freeze
March 29, 2012
The House has passed the Ryan budget plan for FY 2013 which includes extending the pay freeze until 2015, reduces the size of the federal workforce, and increases federal employees’ pension contributions.

Romney: Federal Pay ‘Unfair’
April 25, 2012
In a speech in Manchester, NH this week, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney said that it is fundamentally unfair that federal employees enjoy better pay and benefits than the workers they serve in the private sector.

Details of Pension Changes Revealed
February 17, 2012
Congress has passed the payroll tax cut extension agreement and the President is expected to sign it. But what exactly are the details of the agreement as they relate to federal pensions?

Three Red Flags in Her Early Retirement Plan
July 23, 2012
A financial planner said one of his new clients was a federal employee. It became clear he was not familiar with important benefits his client had as a federal employee.

The Practical Effects of the Proposed Pension Changes
January 26, 2012
The author illustrates a hypothetical scenario of two FERS employees with identical salary histories to show the dramatic impact the recently proposed pension reduction bill, as currently written, would have on future federal retirees.

More Information on the TSP Participant Data Breach
May 25, 2012
A number of our users asked how they can find out if their personal information was compromised in the computer data breach announced by the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board on Friday. Here are some answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about the situation.

Ian Smith is one of the co-founders of FedSmith.com. He enjoys writing about current topics that affect the federal workforce. Ian also has a background in web development and does the technical work for the FedSmith.com web site and its sibling sites.